Bring Back Play Time For Students

What Happened to Play Time?

During my time observing in a Kindergarten classroom, it became apparent that Kindergarten has become the “new first grade”. This means that the students are learning content that used to not be taught until they reached first grade including higher level math and writing skills as well as comprehension skills. Students are even having to do homework rather than spending time playing at home or with family. This observation led me to wonder if this shift in curriculum means that each grade proceeding Kindergarten has also shifted up; making first grade the new second grade, second grade the new third grade and so on. In an article from the National Education Association, Is Kindergarten the New First Grade? a bar graph from 2010 displays the increase in the amount of teachers who spend more time teaching content areas such as English language arts and math compared to those in 1998. This graph is from 2010 so we can assume that it now has even greater numbers. If elementary schools are increasing curriculum and their level in each grade, what elements of the school day are they eliminating to make room for more content?

What Other Researchers are Saying About Play

My research in the article What Happened to Kindergarten? by Jen Scott Curwood led me to understand that brain-based learning has overpowered the importance that play has on children’s social, physical, and social development when the children are as young as five years old. Many schools are too focused on numbers and preparing students for testing that they ignore the importance of helping the child develop skills to prepare for life. There are several positive effects that play has for children. Some of them include the ability to learn through social play, its effectiveness in teaching numbers, letters, and reasoning, it breeds imagination, and it helps the children learn to cope (Curwood, 2007). All of these effects should be emphasized rather than heavy academics in order to set children up for a better future in education as well as life in general. Another reason that play is crucial to children is that it gives them the opportunity to exercise in the case that they may not take that opportunity at home. In a study from 2003, they found that children at home spend as much time on technology as they do playing outside. This means that schools need to give them more time for play in order to change these numbers in a positive way. What many teachers do not realize is that they can integrate the standards that they need to teach with play most of the time, resulting in the ability to keep play in the classroom. Children can use imaginative play to act out a story to strengthen comprehension skills or use fantasy play materials for open-ended questions that encourage higher-ordered thinking. Science, math, and social studies can all be integrated into these types of play as well.

Wrapping Up

It is clear that children have a natural drive to play both in and out of the classroom as a way to discover the world. By combining the process of play and the necessary standards that need to be covered, the student will also be more willing to learn according to expert, Almon, who says that “the drive to play is strong in every healthy child”. By using this drive to play, it is directly linking the drive to learn. For my final blog post I will be discussing the positive effects that play has on academics further.

Resources

Curwood, J. S. (2007). What Happened to Kindergarten? Instructor, 117(1), 28–32. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=507992920&authtype=sso&custid=s3915890&site=ehost-live

Walker, Tim. “Is Kindergarten the New First Grade? Without a Doubt, Say Researchers.” NEA Today, 22 Mar. 2016, neatoday.org/2016/01/19/is-kindergarten-the-new-first-grade/.

How Do Teachers Maintain Students’ Attention Span During Lessons?

By: Jessy Montgomery, Gabryelle Hernandez and Renee Crossan

During our rounds at Eshelman Elementary School, we were able to teach students about how fish breathe under water. We first discussed the differences that our bodies have compared to a fish’s body when they are breathing. The students were able to determine that as we breathe in, our stomachs expand because our lungs are filling with air. The next question was if fish don’t have lungs, how do they get oxygen? Gills. Many of the students knew that fish use their gills to breathe. What we wanted to demonstrate was how the gills actually work with the fish to get oxygen. Using a cup filled with water and seeds (to represent oxygen) and another cup with a coffee filter placed on top (this was the gills), the students were instructed to slowly pour the water and seed mix onto the coffee filter around the other cup. By doing so, they could visualize how the water is filtered out of the fish, back into the ocean, and the fish retains the oxygen through its lungs. The students enjoyed doing the activity and told us that they had a better understanding of how gills actually work. Many of them compared it to a water filter and how it filters out the “bad stuff” so that there is only “good stuff” left. Once they were able to make their own analogy about the topic, we knew they understood the lesson. I think that the students would have enjoyed the activity more if we involved a game that got them up and moving. This would have also benefit us when it came to keeping their attention span up. After the activity with the coffee filters, we had them pick a fish to color to then place on a poster that we made to look like an underwater scene. While they colored, and sometimes during the activity, they kept getting distracted by ideas that the fish would remind them of. One child related the puffer fish to the video game “Fortnite” and ended up going off on a tangent about the game causing his classmates to join in. It was difficult to get them to rejoin the group. In light of this experience, we decided to research articles that relate to attention span in early education.

 

Strategies for Maintaining the Student’s Attention

An important question to research based on the experience with the students at the science fair is “What are strategies teachers can use in order to help maintain the student’s attention during a lesson?”.

An article called “Attention Span: In The 5- To 7-Year-Old Music Student”, by Myrtle D. Millares, talks about the definition, development, and strategies of attention spans. The article focuses on violin students in a music class at the ages between five and seven. Although the age and content is different from what the research was intended for (2nd grade, Science), it is evident that the findings of this article can be applied to students in second grade as well.

In the article, Millares mentions that when teachers ask questions and give challenges to student’s during the lesson or activity, the student gets less distracted. For example, students gave all their attention while playing  an imitation game where they have to focus on the melody and rhythm of music. It has also been found that when teachers interject right away when a student is figuring out a problem, it interrupts the student’s focus on the activity. Another strategy to help keep the student’s attention and interest is to sit beside the students during the activity.

A great takeaway  from the article was that the most powerful tool  is to understand the cause of the inattentive behavior. There was a study done by Doug Lemov from a New York Times article where he states, “ students can’t learn unless the teacher succeeds in capturing their attention and getting them to follow instructions”(Millares, pg.23) . Millares then discusses how putting discipline as the primary goal of a lesson can result to “a battle of wills”. This then causes teachers to be the “all-knowing authority” and  students will become less interested in learning about the material. The students should have fun and take risks to learn new knowledge. Teachers should act more as facilitators rather than disciplinarians in order to give students the best learning experience. The author believes that the classroom should be a place where the students choose to pay attention for a long period of time because they are given the opportunity to try out new things and to use their creativity to do so.

 

Now to Reflect and Improve

    After hearing the feedback from the students, it was clear that the activity could be improved. The students mentioned what their favorite stations were. What stood out to them were the stations where they had a lot of movement and got to eat oreos. This is understandable considering music and movement is fun and oreos are delicious! They not only got to enjoy the oreos, but it helped the students learn about the different moon phases as well. The cookies were something that kept their attention and they could relate to it because it’s something they are familiar with and enjoy. Based on the feedback, the students needed some other activity to motivate them and to interest them with our activity.

As mentioned before, there could of been a movement activity or game added to the lesson about how fish breathe. What also affected the focus of the students was that there had to be time  to prepare for the next group. The time taken away to prepare for the next group ultimately took away opportunities to help the students stay  engaged. One important aspect of the activity that could have helped the student’s engagement was to have something to take with them. A lot of the students were disappointed because they couldn’t take anything. An important point from the research was that it’s not always about following directions during an activity or lesson. For the student who started talking about fortnite, it might of been a good opportunity to find a connection if possible between the game and the ocean so they can become interested. It’s important to not disregard the student’s ideas but to build on them. Finding out students’ interests and applying them to different lessons will really keep them engaged and motivated during the lesson. If they’re interested in a certain topic, they will be more motivated to learn which will also keep them focused during the lesson.

References:

Millares, M. D. (2012). Attention Span In The 5- To 7-Year-Old Music Student. American Music Teacher, 61(5), 20–24. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=73502620&authtype=sso&custid=s3915890&site=ehost-live

 

 

Balancing Screens With Play in Your Home

Observation

In my previous post, I discussed the importance of balancing screen time and play in the classroom and how teachers can begin to understand and use this balance effectively. I was led to this topic after observing a child in my field placement who was developmentally behind both physically and cognitively. After research and thought, I realized that this topic was a good start but it was not the exact road I wanted to continue on in my journey of research to practice. It led me to think about screen time at home instead. Teachers can do many things in the classroom to limit screen time and incorporate play for their students, but if it is not consistent in home-life, the entire practice is gone to waste.

Research

In an article titled Should Technology Be a Concern for Parents of Preschoolers? authors Lori Deshelter and Ruslan Slutsky discuss their findings on how parents feel about technology in their children’s lives. They addressed the issue that technology may be used as a babysitter in the home for many parents because of its appearance as an “attractive alternative due to the exhaustion caused at work” (Plowman, 2013). It is used to keep the child busy while the parent does something else. This is not the best way to use technology with children because they benefit most from human contact, according to experts Wiles, Schachtner, and Pentz (2016). In order to get the most benefits from technology when using it with children, you need to interact with them while they are using it and help to engage them in what they are using it for. There are two main reasons that technology is used today. The first is as entertainment including television and movies, tablet games, computer and video games, and electronic toys (Deshelter & Slutsky, 35).  The second use of technology is for educational purposes including educational games and learning on different devices (Deshelter & Slutsky, 35). While this is the use of technology that is preferred for young children, it is not always going to be what is implemented in a home. In order to make sure that children are benefitting educationally from technology, there are some recommendations below for parents to use on devices.

Practice

While the ideal situation would be for parents to be able to sit with their children and engage in the technology that they are using, this may not always be possible in certain households. Some parents may need to give their child a tablet or other device to distract them while they do other things or to keep them quiet and content in a public setting where they cannot run around. One of the main things to consider is balancing out screen time with play and other means of learning. In order to make sure that the children are not mindlessly looking at videos, playing games, or watching shows of no educational value, there are tricks that parents can use to prevent this.

One trick that parents can use on devices is to set a password lock that only they know. This will prevent the children from accessing the technology whenever they want. By doing so, children will have to ask for parental permission in order to use it and the parent(s) can track how often their child has screen time. Once that child has access to the screen, the parent(s) should set guidelines for the amount of total time that the child has on it. For example, while I was growing up, I had access to only one hour total of either TV, computer, or video games per day. How I divided up that hour was up to me but if I spent an hour on the computer, I was not permitted to watch any TV that night or play video games. Another way for parents to monitor how children use their technology is to provide tablets with only educational games such as those that help with fine motor skills, alphabet and numbers, or colors and shapes. Technology devices are great ways to have students engaged in educational games where they are actually learning something. As long as parents are monitoring and moderating the technology and balancing it out with play, there would not be negative effects on their children.

Reflection

In reflection of this post, I believe that I have provided different strategies for parents to use in their home to prevent over-use of technology with their children. Since I have already talked about technology in the classroom as well, moving forward, I will discuss the topic of importance of play in the classroom. Play is a very important developmental tool with pre-school aged children and it is important for teachers and parents to implement play to their best abilities. Understanding the benefits of play will encourage the use of it.

References

DeShelter, L., & Slutsky, R. (2017). Should Technology Be a Concern for Parents of Preschoolers? (English). Dimensions of Early Childhood, 45(2), 29–45. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=124123451&authtype=sso&custid=s3915890&site=ehost-live

 

 

 

How can teachers balance screen time and play in the pre-school classroom?

Two elements balancing

During my time in the classroom, I observed a child who was developmentally behind in cognition. She had trouble following directions and her language seemed low for her age in comparison to the rest of her classmates. This observation led me to discuss with her teacher about the child to confirm if my observations were on track. Her teacher discussed with me that the child is lower developmentally than her classmates and part of it is because she has a lot of screen time at home. Her teacher stated that the student is “just put in front of a screen” rather than engaging in play. Since this topic can only be controlled by the parents at home, it is especially important that the teacher finds ways of balancing screen time and play in the classroom. This led me to research some of the most effective ways the teacher can do this. One of the most important components that I found from my research is balance. Children in the pre-school age should not receive more than one hour of screen time each day. In order to monitor this, the teacher should have the children play for each minute that they are using technology, with a maximum of 30 minutes of screen time. Another way to implement balance of screen time and play is to ensure that children know how the technology is being used to further their education and that it is not just being used as a “babysitter” for the children. The children can still be engaged in social interactions and physical exertion while using the technology by games such as Kahoot and GoNoodle. The most important tip is to use technology and screen time in moderation and to balance it out with non-digitized play. In reflection of this information, I believe that I have enough knowledge on this topic. I have decided to switch my future research topic to something related to screen time at home and the negative implications that it can have when it is not moderated in order to inform parents and guardians so that they can try to change any bad habits related to using screen time as the babysitter for their children.

References:

Slutsky, R., Slutsky, M., & DeShelter, L. M. . (2014). Playing with Technology: Is it All Bad? Dimensions of Early Childhood, 42(3), 18–23. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=110467433&authtype=sso&custid=s3915890&site=ehost-live